As a product builder, I build things full-time, whether it’s a , micro-products or coaching founders to build tech products. For fun, I build , event app, , , sneaker app, using my . venture newsletter AI article tool Food app SaaS tracker rapid MVP technique This post is one of my series that has been ranked on t 🎉 & Multi-Part Product Guide HackerNoon Daily TechBea Test Willingness To Pay Create Monetizable Products In the early stages of building a startup, it's important to start small by focusing on a niche market, rather than trying to immediately enter a large market. Doing this will help you uncover specific customer needs, test product-solution fit, and validate assumptions before expanding the product features or additional offerings. What is a minimum viable market? The smallest market size that recognizes the pain point and is willing to pay for your solution The smallest market size you can adequately serve (have enough people to respond to your solution) The smallest market size to which you can effectively reach out, promote, and sell The smallest market that can sustain the revenue or profitability for your business Step #1: Discover problem areas If you don’t have a startup idea yet, this is a great way to start. Instead of generating a startup idea from thin air, you can approach it from the . market problem perspective The first step is to identify the problem areas you’re interested in solving and dig deeper into other smaller segments within the same problem area. For instance, if you’re trying to solve for remote workers, here are some subsets of the larger issues to consider: e.g. virtual meetings, document search, collaboration, and task management. productivity problems If it’s a for online businesses, it could be: customer acquisition, lead generation, conversion, retention, and optimization. sales problem Example: initially focused on building an online store for selling books before expanding to other product categories and becoming the largest online retailer globally. 🛍️ Amazon initially solved a problem for developers to integrate payment before expanding its solutions to all businesses. 💳 Stripe 🏠 When first started, they initially focused on solving the accommodation problem, rather than trying to tackle the entire travel and vacation market. They did this by offering air mattresses for rent in people's homes during conferences and events when hotels were fully booked. Airbnb Step #2: Define your target customers Next, consider who are the specific target customers who might be experiencing the problem in Step 1. You can also further slice your target audience into . unique sets of users E,g., if you’re solving a task management problem for remote teams, you may want to to a specific department, such as the design, development, or sales team. narrow down your use cases Once you have a general idea about your target audience, it's important to learn more about their needs and pain points. You can do this through various methods, such as: This involves analyzing industry reports, competitor analysis, and market trends to understand the demand for similar solution and the needs of your target audience. 🗺️ Conducting market research: Reach out to 10 to 20 potential users and engage in 1:1 conversations to learn what they are trying to accomplish, how they are currently solving the problem, and what their biggest frustrations with current solutions are. 🗣️ Talking to potential users: Use surveys to collect data on the preferences and pain points of your target audience. This can help you identify specific features that would be most valuable to them. ✍️ Surveying your target audience: Create a user persona profile Next, organize all the information you know about your customers in one place. Create an to include things like: ideal customer profile Age, gender, income level, education level, job title, location, etc. Demographic background: This can be related to their job or personal life. Responsibilities: What do they prioritize and value the most in their life or work? Values: What are the essential needs that your product can fulfill for them? Core needs: What are their short-term and long-term goals? What motivates them to achieve these goals? Goals and motivation: What are the obstacles they face in achieving their goals? What frustrates them the most? Challenges and frustrations: Step #3: Ideate a solution to the problem Once you have identified the specific problem areas and the target audience, the next step is to brainstorm solutions that cater to the niche market you have discovered. When ideating solutions to a problem, it's important to consider multiple solutions and pick the most solution. Here are four simple questions to help guide your ideation process: feasible, viable, and desirable What is the or desired outcome that users are trying to achieve? goal What are the customer are potentially seeking? values How might we through the solution? deliver those values What are the of each solution? pros and cons Example: Let’s say you’re trying to help busy professionals lose weight in natural and healthy ways. Your target audience is health-conscious with high-income and values physical appearance. Here are some possible solutions to brainstorm: Solution 1: Personalized meal kit delivery for a healthier weight. Pros—Provides a healthy and balanced diet to prevent unhealthy weight gain. Cons—May not address underlying issues that cause weight gain such as stress, overeating, and health issues. Solution 2: DNA-based nutrition program. Pros—Provides personalized and tailored nutrition plans based on an individual's genetic makeup. Cons—Genetic testing may not always be accurate or provide a complete picture of an individual's health and nutritional needs. Solution 3: A holistic weight digital clinic backed by a team of doctors, coaches, and nutritionists. Pros—Offers a comprehensive approach to weight management that addresses various factors that contribute to weight gain such as stress, sleep, diet, and lifestyle. Cons—May be costly and require a significant time commitment to follow through Step #4: Validate the minimum viable market Validating your minimum viable market is essential to determine if your solution is viable and if there is a market demand for it. The best way to do this is by testing your solution with your target customers. Here are some ways to test your solution: (1) Value proposition test: Create a landing page to test if your offer resonates with your target customers. Include components on your landing page that communicate your customers’ problems, solutions, features, and benefits. (2) Experiment: Conduct a minimum viable test before building an actual product. If you're building a digital clinic for weight care, consider manually offering 1:1 wellness coaching before creating the MVP. This way, you can see whether users are benefiting from your solution and getting the results they desire. (3) Minimum viable product (MVP): Create a functional initial product that delivers value to users. For example, you can stitch together live video software, messaging features, appointment scheduling tool, and a website to deliver the weight expert coaching marketplace. This will help you test the demand for your solution and identify any areas that need improvement before expanding the MVP features. About Me [1] Find me on / 👋 Twitter LinkedIn [2] Get my product-building teardown — 🚀 Join my newsletter Also published here. The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's via the prompt "a crowd of people at a shopping mall". AI Image Generator
